


The Kind of Love that Quiets the World

by mallardeer



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-25 22:58:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12046071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mallardeer/pseuds/mallardeer
Summary: It doesn’t snow much—ever, really—in National City, and at first, he loves it. There’s no horrible delays getting to work, no awful slush on every corner to sink in all the way up to his ankles, no need to wear three layers just to run around the corner for coffee. But after two years, especially around December, he finds he misses it. There’s always a few hours, even in Metropolis, when the snow can make everything seem pristine, muted, soft—like a whole different, quiet world.





	The Kind of Love that Quiets the World

**Author's Note:**

> Saw a Tumblr dialogue prompt, wrote an unseasonal fluff piece. Please read now or after Thanksgiving or both.

It doesn’t snow much—ever, really—in National City, and at first, he loves it. There’s no horrible delays getting to work, no awful slush on every corner to sink in all the way up to his ankles, no need to wear three layers just to run around the corner for coffee. But after two years, especially around December, he finds he misses it. There’s always a few hours, even in Metropolis, when the snow can make everything seem pristine, muted, soft—like a whole different, quiet world. 

He misses it most on nights like tonight, when it’s been almost cold enough to snow all week, when he’s put on the sweater that Martha Kent had knitted for him one Christmas, when he stands next to the windows of Lena’s apartment, watching the lights of the city. “Jimmy, what are you lookin’ at?” Kara asks, and he shrugs, turning to her with a half-smile.  
  
“I think I was wishing it would snow,” he says, and Kara’s eyes light up. 

Next to her on the couch, Lena snorts and shakes her head. “You don’t like snow?” Kara reproaches.

James laughs and comes to kiss them both, and Kara pulls him onto the couch so she can put her legs in his lap. “It’s freezing, it’s miserable, it causes all kinds of accidents and transit delays,” Lena grumps, but she starts stroking Kara’s hair and thinking about winters in her childhood.   
  
When she was very small, there was a day that Lex had gotten her all bundled up in a snow suit and towed her on a toboggan to the country club, and they had spent all morning sledding down the hills around the golf course. Lex was untiring, gamely towing her back up every hill before jumping on behind her to send them careening back to the bottom. She remembers screaming and the wind whipping at her cheeks, and Lex, solid and strong behind her, making sure she never fell off. 

Lionel had found them after several hours, breathless and laughing at the bottom of what was usually a sand trap, Lena’s head on Lex’s stomach. “What on earth do you think you’re doing?” their father had thundered, and Lex had scrambled to his feet and quickly lifted Lena into his arms. 

“Sledding!” he’d said. “Lena said she’d never been before.”  
  
Lena had said no such thing, just blindly followed her brother wherever he’d lead, but appealing to her father’s soft spot for her had been Lex’s only strategy. “Home,” was all Lionel had said, so Lex had gathered the sled, put Lena on his back, and hurried after their father. 

At home, Lex had gotten her into warm, dry clothes and settled her in the living room with a cup of hot chocolate. She’d fallen asleep on his shoulder, spilling most of the hot chocolate, but Lex hadn’t scolded her, only mopped it up before carrying her up to bed. 

“Where’d you go, Lee?” James is asking, and she shakes her head to bring herself back to the present. 

“Oh, sorry, just…thinking about something from a long time ago,” she says quietly. 

“Do you know what I love?” Kara says, looking up at her with a goofy grin that makes her heart flutter, bringing her right out of her somber mood. “Fires. How cozy they can make a room feel.”  
  
“Exactly,” James says, delighted, and Lena manages to smile at them.   
  
She lets them talk about winter, snow and ice skating and decorating for Christmas, and she thinks maybe it’s time to make some new winter memories. 

They fall asleep in their usual pile on the couch watching one of Kara’s movie picks, and when Lena wakes up, she slides out from under Kara and pads to the window. There had been whispers of possible flurries in the forecast all day, since the weather had been so unusually cold for National City, but she’d thought nothing of it. So she is rather surprised to see snowflakes drifting toward the crowd, a small layer already covering the street below. 

“Oh,” she breathes, because from up here, in her warm apartment, with the people she loves asleep just behind her, the snow really does look beautiful.   
  
She steals to the hall closet and wraps her long wool coat around her before taking out Kara and James’s coats. Part of her brain remembers that Kara doesn’t actually need a coat, but she carries it anyway. “Wake up, wake up,” she urges the sleeping pair, and Kara starts awake right away, ready to jump into Supergirl mode.  
  
“What is it?” she asks, so Lena kisses her to soothe her.  
  
“Just come with me,” she says, putting Kara’s coat around her shoulders. “Jimmy,” she says, kissing James’s forehead, and he yawns and climbs to his feet.  
  
“What’s all this?” he asks, and she pushes his coat into his arms and drapes his scarf around his neck.   
  
“Come with me,” she says again, and Kara and James obediently follow her into the elevator and out onto the street.  
  
It’s past midnight, so there’s barely anyone else out, and the usual late-night sounds of the city seem to have been swallowed up by the fresh blanket of snow. Lena stands on the sidewalk under her building’s overhang, holding James and Kara by their elbows, and waits. “Oh!” they say at the same time. “It really is snowing.”

They turn to each other and grin, forgetting about Lena the snow Grinch for a minute, and she steps back and watches them take in the early winter scene. And sure, snow is cold and inconvenient and so much more trouble than it’s worth, but right now it’s actually kind of wonderful. 

Kara scoops up a small snowball and lobs it at James, and it gets him in the chin. He laughs and chases after her, and they both skid on their knees. He smushes a handful of snow into her face, and she shrieks and rolls him onto his back, but he just grins at her. A car drives slowly past, reminding them they’re not actually in their own world, and they both jump to their feet.   
  
“Hey!” they both say, beaming at her.   
  
“I thought you said you hated the snow, Lee,” James says, brushing off Kara’s coat.   
  
“I do. It’s terrible,” she says placidly.  
  
“So what are we doing out here in the snow, then?” Kara asks, bumping James’s shoulder.   
  
“You like the snow,” Lena say simply, and Kara smiles as James puts his arms around both of them.   
  
“Come on, maybe we’ll make a convert of you yet, Lena,” James says.  
  
“Maybe,” she murmurs.   
  
For a few more minutes, they watch the snow fall, and Lena lets her head rest against James’s shoulder. Eventually, she feels the cold in her toes and her fingers and says, “Come on. Who wants hot chocolate?”  
  
That’s all Kara needs to hear to go screeching back into the building, excitedly burbling about mini marshmallows. Lena stays outside with James for a moment more, and he pulls her close. “Thanks for getting us up for this,” he murmurs, and she stands on her toes to kiss his cheek.  
  
“Couldn’t let you miss it,” she says, and he kisses her forehead before letting her lead him inside.

They find Kara in the kitchen, pouring milk into a saucepan and tossing mini marshmallows into her mouth. She flips one into the air at James, and he catches it between his teeth, to Kara’s complete delight. “Why do I even have mini marshmallows in my kitchen, Kara?” Lena asks fondly, and Kara winks at her.

“Someone smart did the grocery shopping this week,” she says proudly, and Lena shakes her head, but goes to retrieve the cocoa packets from one of the cabinets. 

Kara happily mixes up three mugs of hot chocolate, dropping marshmallows into each one. She hands Lena and James their mugs before taking her own and the rest of the marshmallows over to the couch. “You’re going to eat all of those, huh?” James observes, sipping his drink. 

Lena stands beside him and watches Kara grin and shrug and toss another handful of marshmallows into her mouth. “Come sit,” she orders, so Lena and James take their places on either side of her. “Thanks for waking us up, Lee,” she says sweetly, and Lena kisses her softly.   
  
“It only snows here once every six years, right?” she says, folding her legs under her.   
  
James sets down his mug and spreads a blanket over the three of them. “Wish I could build a fire,” he says, so Lena puts a fireplace video on the TV, and he chuckles. “Good enough for tonight, I suppose.”

They sit quietly, sipping their hot chocolate and listening to the crackling of the fake fire. Lena rests her head on Kara’s shoulder, and Kara presses a kiss to her forehead. She starts to feel warm and drowsy, and before she knows it, she’s spilled her hot chocolate into Kara’s lap. 

But Kara just laughs while James mops it up with napkins leftover from dinner. Lena sighs, but Kara shares the rest of hers, very generously, and then three of them make their way to bed. James falls asleep almost instantly, practically spread eagle on his side of the bed, and Lena sits up, still watching the snow. Kara returns from the bathroom and kisses her as she crawls in between her and James.   
  
“So? Snow winning you over, Lee?” Kara asks softly, and Lena nods.   
  
“It’s much nicer with the two of you,” she replies. “Everything is.”

Kara gently tugs her into her arms, and she pulls the blankets up over them. “I agree one thousand percent,” Kara proclaims. “Just wait until I take you ice skating.”  
  
“I’d love that,” Lena says sleepily, and she drifts off while Kara lists all the winter activities the three of them will now have to do. 


End file.
